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AAC2026_Tanzer_Grown Organically Software and Bonsai.pdf
Growing Bonsai trees requires patience, but also many small adjustments. It is impossible to create a beautiful, ancient-looking tree in a day – This takes years. The same is true for software development: We cannot create great software on the first try. Creating nice bonsai trees and creating good software requires a long series of many small steps and adjustments, done in an iterative an incremental manner, guided by an overall vision, feedback and tests. But while in Bonsai, the plant mostly determines our iteration speed, in software development we can influence it. And shortening the feedback loops can improve the quality of the result! But only when we keep our code „clean“, just as we can only successfully work on a Bonsai when we keep the plan healthy. In this talk, David will explain what bonsai trees are and how to create one. You will learn what’s necessary on a day-to-day basis to both keep it alive and create a beautiful tree over time. And we will relate all of that to software development.
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- 1. Grown Organically Growing Softwareand Bonsai
- 2.
- 3. Bonsai: Tree ina Pot Bonsai: Tree in a Pot Bonsai "Kenshin Tōge", ca. 800 Jahre alt (Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0, Author: Order of the Rose)
- 4. Bonsai: Piece ofArt Bonsai: Piece of Art
- 5. Bonsai: Piece ofArt Bonsai: Piece of Art ● Represents a big tree in nature ● Is a small tree in a pot
- 6. Piece of Art:Abstraction Piece of Art: Abstraction
- 7. Tradition, Techniques, Jargon Tradition,Techniques, Jargon
- 8.
- 9.
- 10. The shortest Path Theshortest Path ● ...between two Points is not always a line!
- 11. MMMSS MMMSS ● Many More MuchSmaller Steps (GeePaw Hill) ● No obvious shortest distance ● Must be able to change destination ● Hand-offs between large steps are expensive
- 12. Priority #1: Health Priority#1: Health ● As long as you don’t kill the tree, there are options ● Healthy business ● Healthy code ● Healthy team
- 13. One Step ata Time One Step at a Time
- 14. One Step ata Time One Step at a Time ● Response of the Tree = Feedback – No no work before you observe the response – Watch, water, fertilize, keep pests in check ● Never work without feedback: – Stories, that build on one another – Long-running branches – Accepted in review, but feature-flagged
- 15. Patience Patience ● Trees are slowwhen giving feedback – Takes weeks – … or months
- 16. Patience Patience With software products, patienceis an important skill to make sure we don’t push the team faster than they can write good code, or make changes to the product faster than you can learn from users response to the changes. -- Andy Nortrup
- 17. Speed is Key Speedis Key ● Which team provides more value?
- 19. Speed is Key Speedis Key
- 20. Speed is Key Speedis Key
- 21. Wait… Patience orSpeed? Wait… Patience or Speed? Bad ● More code, faster ● More features, faster → Local optimization Good ● Better feedback, faster ● More value, faster
- 22. Key to Success Keyto Success ● Iteration ● Feedback – Better – Faster
- 23.
- 24. All Steps areSimple All Steps are Simple ● TDD: Red-Green-Refactor ● Refactoring: Extract variable / method, Move, … ● Scrum: Planning, Review, Retro, …
- 25. Steps Must beSmall Steps Must be Small ● Intrinsic benefits of Steps – Interruptability – Steerability – Reversability – Rhythm – … GeePaw Hill
- 26. MMMSS – ManyMore Much Smaller Steps MMMSS – Many More Much Smaller Steps
- 27. “Just Let itGrow” “Just Let it Grow”
- 28. “Just Let itGrow” “Just Let it Grow”
- 29. “Just Let itGrow” “Just Let it Grow”
- 30. “Just Let itGrow” “Just Let it Grow”
- 31. “Just Let itGrow” “Just Let it Grow”
- 32. “Just Let itGrow” “Just Let it Grow”
- 33. “Just Let itGrow” “Just Let it Grow”
- 34. “Just Let itGrow” “Just Let it Grow”
- 35. “Just Let itGrow” “Just Let it Grow”
- 36. Steps Must beApplied Consistently Steps Must be Applied Consistently
- 37. Steps Must beApplied Consistently Steps Must be Applied Consistently
- 38. Steps Must beApplied Consistently Steps Must be Applied Consistently
- 39. Steps Must beApplied Consistently Steps Must be Applied Consistently
- 40. Steps Must beApplied Consistently Steps Must be Applied Consistently
- 41. Steps Must beApplied Consistently Steps Must be Applied Consistently
- 42. Steps Must beApplied Consistently Steps Must be Applied Consistently
- 43. Steps Must beApplied Consistently Steps Must be Applied Consistently
- 44. Steps Must beApplied Consistently Steps Must be Applied Consistently
- 45. Steps Must beApplied Consistently Steps Must be Applied Consistently
- 46. Key to Success Keyto Success ● Small steps ● Applied consistently ● Towards a goal ● Over long periods
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- 48. Bonsai: Unsustainable System Bonsai:Unsustainable System ● Small pot ● Dense branches / twigs ● Wants to grow big → Requires constant attention, steering & work
- 49. Software: Unsustainable System Software:Unsustainable System ● Requirements change ● Technology changes ● We learn and get better → Requires constant attention, steering & work
- 50. Health & Environment Health& Environment
- 51. Responding to Change Respondingto Change ● Future-proof architecture is adaptable ● Only simple designs are easy to adapt ● Remove unnecessary elements ● Learn to refactor safely and in small steps
- 52. Environment: Growth andLearning Environment: Growth and Learning How can teams learn to ● Get better feedback faster? ● Create software that can be adapted based on feedback? ● Create processes that allow for fast iteration?
- 53. Environment: Size &Speed Environment: Size & Speed ● Just add one more person… (?) ● “With half the people, we could do this project in half the time”
- 54. Key to Success Keyto Success ● Sustaining software requires constant work ● Create an environment where teams can thrive ● Optimize for adaptability
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- 56. Learning by Watching? Learningby Watching? Video of a Bonsai Workshop ● Student wires the whole tree (mechanical skill) ● Master sets the branches and designs the tree (artistic skill) Did they maximize learning?
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- 58. The Main Product TheMain Product "The most important product of software development is software developers" -- Jason Gorman
- 59. We Learn byDoing We Learn by Doing ● From mistakes ● From successes ● From repetition
- 60. We Learn fromEach Other We Learn from Each Other ● By discussing ● By solving problems together ● By watching and trying something similar ● By watching and trying something different
- 61. We Learn byTeaching We Learn by Teaching ● By digging deeper into a subject ● By saying things out loud ● By watching others how they understood us
- 62. Training from TheBack of the Room Training from The Back of the Room
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- 64. Way to Success Wayto Success ● Create software developers ● Optimize for learning ● Learn together ● Learn and coach in a brain-friendly way
- 65. David Tanzer David Tanzer ● TechnicalAgile Coach ● Trainer ● Software Developer / Architect ● Freelancer since 2016 ● https://www.davidtanzer.net ● https://www.devteams.at
- 66.